Chamber music group getting new directors

Saturday

Jan 19, 2013 at 2:00 AM

BETHEL — Judith Pearce has been staging concerts since she was a 15-year-old schoolgirl in England. And as a way to stay happy, she organized her first chamber music concert in Sullivan County in 1994.

Victor Whitman

BETHEL — Judith Pearce has been staging concerts since she was a 15-year-old schoolgirl in England. And as a way to stay happy, she organized her first chamber music concert in Sullivan County in 1994.

That was a humble affair in the former Meat Market in Lake Huntington.

After the concert, Pearce said she met with members of the Lion's Club in a bar and the all-male group kicked over a $100 donation to put on another one. And so, Weekend of Chamber Music was off and running.

Weekend of Chamber Music, now a nonprofit, has an operating budget of more than $100,000. Its artists have introduced students in all the county's districts to the music of Bach, Beethoven and Stravinsky.

The group Pearce founded 19 years ago is best known for a two-week summer festival with a loyal fan base, held at various venues throughout Sullivan County.

Pearce, who has been the group's artistic director, said at a news conference Friday at the Dancing Cat Distillery in Bethel that it is time for the organization to take the next step and let others lead.

Composer Andrew Waggoner and his wife, cellist Caroline Stinson, were introduced as the new artistic directors.

Both say they're only going to tinker with the program.

One of their big goals is to make the music even more accessible and to a larger audience, and draw people from downstate and New York City.

This year, the festival will be held from July 14 to July 28. One notable change is that a composer-in-residence will spend one week at the festival each year.

Composer John Harbison will be the first to come this summer.

Waggoner, an award-winning composer-in-residence at the Setnor Music School at Syracuse University, praised Pearce for building a strong music base in the Catskills.

Pearce, a flutist, said she will continue to perform with the artists, and remain on the board of directors.

She remains as bubbly and enthusiastic about the art as she did as a young girl.

"The canon of chamber music is literally infinite, unending," Pearce said.

"The idea of staging chamber music right in front of an audience, it becomes vital. I call it a vital art."